As trips to the dentist go, it was straightforward: José Padilla needed root canal treatment. But because he was classed as an "enemy combatant" being held without charge in military detention as a suspected terrorist, preparations for the visit were anything but simple.

International news p15

South Africa's most-wanted criminal was shot and recaptured yesterday, two weeks after he slid out of a top security prison by greasing himself all over with petroleum jelly to squeeze out of a tiny cell window.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran, who flaunts his ideological fervour, has been accused of undermining Iran's Islamic revolution after television footage appeared to show him watching a female song and dance show.

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